Desert Hot Springs voters will decide this fall how they want the city's mayor to be selected in future years and how long a mayor should be able to serve on the City Council.

The Desert Hot Springs City Council voted 3-2 to put a second ballot measure about the role of the mayor to the voters this November. The Council approved the item at a special meeting Tuesday morning with Council members Russell Betts and Joe McKee voting no.*

McKee called confusing language added to the ordinance by another Council member clarifying that a no vote means retaining a directly elected mayor for a two-year term and adding a two-term limit if the voters do extend the length of the mayor’s term.

“I think this is turning into something where you’re going to have to be Albert Einstein to figure these measures out,” he said. “We already have term limits. They’re called elections.”

If passed, city voters would continue to directly elect the mayor, but the position’s term would be lengthened from two to four years starting in 2020. The measure was slated to be voted on at the last regularly scheduled Council meeting, but was postponed because Council member Anayeli Zavala was absent and other Council members felt all five members should cast a vote on the issue.

Desert Hot Springs Mayor Scott Matas and former Council member Yvonne Parks at a previous meeting.(Photo: Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun)

Zavala suggested on Tuesday that the additional wording clarifying what a no vote means and adding in a term-limit provision be added to the ordinance. She said a four-year term would mean someone only had to be elected three times to be mayor for over a decade and she thought the Council needed to make sure new faces with fresh ideas were able to get a seat behind the dais.

The Council voted 4-1 last month to place a competing measure on the ballot that would make the mayor’s job rotate between all five Council members rather than be directly elected by voters as a separate position.

Pye voted no to placing the first measure on the ballot, saying she thought “the public has not had enough time to figure this out” and that she was concerned about the extra, unbudgeted cost of putting ballot measures to voters. Several members of the public spoke out against the idea of making the mayor a rotating, rather than directly elected, position at that meeting.

If only one of the two ballot measures passes, that one takes effect. If both ballot measures pass with more than 50 percent of voters in support the measure with the higher number of yes votes takes effect.

If both measures fail in November, there will be no changes to how the mayor is selected or the term length for the position.

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Desert Hot Springs City Council member Anayeli Zavala at a previous Council meeting.(Photo: Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun)

The Council decided to add the second measure after concerns from members and the public were raised that putting only one measure to the voters -- asking if they want the post of mayor to rotate -- didn’t present the public with a choice.

McKee and Betts brought the first measure forward in June, saying they thought it could alleviate some of the political infighting that has plagued previous Desert Hot Springs City Councils. McKee reiterated Tuesday that he thought moving to a rotating mayor would be a smart move for the city and that if it wasn’t done now, it would be done within a few years after more political turbulence.

“I understand the philosophy or the want to be able to elect the mayor, but what effect does that have on the politics in this city?” he said. “And, bluntly, I haven’t heard anything other than ‘I want to elect the mayor’ for the positives.”

Coachella, like Desert Hot Springs, has a directly elected mayor who serves a two year term. La Quinta’s mayor is directly elected, but serves a four-year term. In Indio, Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, the post rotates annually.

Cathedral City will switch to a rotating mayor later this year after its first by-district elections and Palm Springs is considering whether to make the post rotating rather than directly elected as it transitions to electoral districts this year, but has not yet made a decision.

The election will be held along with regularly scheduled elections on Nov. 6.

*Editor's note: this story has been corrected to accurately reflect which Council members voted against placing the measure on the ballot.

Corinne Kennedy covers the west valley for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at Corinne.Kennedy@DesertSun.com or on Twitter @CorinneSKennedy